Goodbye passports: Sydney airport is now trying face-scanning travel

Facial recognition, given how revolutionary this technology might seem, is still terrifying. Thinking that our movements can be tracked with a machine has to bring a little discomfort.

But if you’re Australian, you had better start getting used to it, as Sydney airport is on its way to replacing passport check-ins with face scans, in partnership with Qantas.

The plan is already being trialed by Qantas in order to replace the “inconvenience” of relying on paper passports.

Sydney airport is testing this new program on this week’s passengers. The passengers will have the chance to pass through check-in, baggage drop, lounge access and boarding using just their faces.

Sydney airport CEO Geoff Culbert said, in a statement provided to the press, “In the future, there will be no more juggling passports and bags at check-in and digging through pockets or smartphones to show your boarding pass.” He added, “Your face will be your passport and your boarding pass at every step of the process.”

We can’t assume that the technology will be infallible from day 1. After all, it would take a lot to roll it out to 43 million passengers a year.

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